Thai schools hold active shooter drills after 14-year-old kills seven in Nonthaburi
Education ministry directive follows attack as schools implement emergency response plans and daily security checks
AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised · How this was made
Students take cover under tables during a drill to prepare for an active shooter scenario, at Surasak Montri School in Bangkok, on Aug 19, 2026. (Photo: Reuters)
Photograph: Bangkok Post (embedded from source)
What this story says
- A 14-year-old opened fire at a school in Nonthaburi, Thailand, on 6 August 2026, killing seven people including himself.
- The education ministry required all schools to conduct active shooter drills and draw up security plans by 10 August 2026.
- Students at Surasak Montri School in Bangkok practiced 'run, hide, fight' exercises with a police officer acting as a mock attacker.
- Daily security measures now include metal detectors and bag searches at school entrances.
Who covered it
Percentages are shares of the 11 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. 3 of the 14 outlets we know ran this story carry no rating and are not counted in them. Coverage measured .
Trust
70/100
Craft
85/100
Hype
15/100
14 sources · methodology
Missing from the left
None of the 11 outlets with a published leaning rating that ran this story are rated left.
A reader who follows the left would not have seen this. We report the absence rather than explain it: outlets choose what to cover for many reasons, and we have no evidence about which one applies here.
Thai schools held active shooter drills on 19 August 2026, two weeks after a 14-year-old killed seven people at a school in Nonthaburi. The drills were part of a directive signed on 10 August by Education Minister Prasert Jantararuangtong, requiring all schools to develop and rehearse emergency response plans.
At Surasak Montri School in Bangkok, students participated in 'run, hide, fight' exercises. A police officer acted as a mock attacker, firing blanks from a handgun and an assault rifle. Students ran, hid under tables, barricaded doors with furniture, and in one scenario tackled the attacker. The school also escalated daily security checks, using metal detectors and searching bags at entrances.
Visitsak Vipattanamongkol, superintendent of the police Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit, said every school was adjusting its plans to prepare students for potential threats. Onitcha Kochana, director of Surasak Montri School, said the training gave students knowledge to respond in a real emergency.
Disagreement on the death toll
The Bangkok Post reported that the 14-year-old killed seven people, including himself. Reuters, The Straits Times, WTVB and Arab News reported that he killed at least eight people. Devdiscourse did not specify a number.
What the coverage left out
No left-rated outlet ran this story. None of the right-rated digests mentioned that the 14-year-old had killed his grandparents before the school attack; that detail appeared only in the Bangkok Post’s full report.
Coverage settled. We checked this 95 times and stopped on 24 Aug 2026, 12:30. The figures above are what it finished at.
How each side covered it
Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.
Left
0 rated outlets
No outlet rated left ran this story. We watched the coverage until it stopped changing, and none appeared.
Centre
5 rated outlets
- The three centre-rated reports led on the drills as a response to the Nonthaburi attack. Devdiscourse called the drills 'a decisive move to bolster school security' and said the education ministry aimed to 'equip students with skills to manage such incidents effectively'. Reuters and WTVB carried the same digest, which named the school where the drills took place and the age of the shooter.
- Devdiscourse’s full report described the 'run, hide, fight' exercises and the use of metal detectors. It quoted no named official. The digest carried by Reuters and WTVB did not mention the exercises or the security measures.
Right
6 rated outlets
- The Bangkok Post, The Straits Times and Arab News all led on the drills as a security measure following the Nonthaburi attack. The Bangkok Post’s full report described the 'run, hide, fight' exercises in detail, including students tackling the mock attacker. It quoted Visitsak Vipattanamongkol, a police superintendent, and Onitcha Kochana, the school director, on the importance of the training.
- The Bangkok Post also reported that the 14-year-old had killed his grandparents before the school attack. The Straits Times and Arab News digests did not mention the grandparents. The Bangkok Post included photographs of the drills and of teachers using metal detectors.
Questions about this coverage
- How did the left and right cover Thai schools hold active shooter drills after 14-year-old kills seven…?
- Of the 11 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 0% are rated left, 45% are rated centre, 55% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it, which was 14. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
- Is Thai schools hold active shooter drills after 14-year-old kills seven… left or right?
- Too few of the outlets on this story carry a published leaning rating to say. 11 of them do, and this site does not characterise a field under 12: at that size one newsroom filing moves the share by ten points. The percentages above are the count as it stands.
- Is the coverage of Thai schools hold active shooter drills after 14-year-old kills seven… biased?
- Thai schools hold active shooter drills after 14-year-old kills seven in Nonthaburi is one event reported by 14 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.
- Which side is not reporting Thai schools hold active shooter drills after 14-year-old kills seven…?
- When we first saw this story, outlets rated left had barely covered it. Coverage accretes for hours after an event, so that is where to look rather than a verdict — the split above is the current count, and it is the one to read.
- Which outlets covered Thai schools hold active shooter drills after 14-year-old kills seven…?
- 14 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.
- How many people died in the Nonthaburi school shooting?
- The Bangkok Post reported seven deaths, including the 14-year-old shooter. Reuters, The Straits Times, WTVB and Arab News reported at least eight deaths. The exact number remains disputed among the outlets.
- What security measures are Thai schools now using?
- Thai schools are conducting daily security checks with metal detectors and bag searches. They are also rehearsing 'run, hide, fight' drills, where students practice evading and barricading against a mock attacker.
- Did any outlet report that the shooter killed his grandparents?
- Yes, the Bangkok Post reported that the 14-year-old killed his grandparents before the school attack. No other outlet in this sample mentioned it.
Read it at the source
14 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.
Left
0No outlet in this group ran the story.
Centre
5- Thai schools hold active shooter drills after deadly attack (opens South China Morning Post in a new tab)
South China Morning Post — is South China Morning Post biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Thai schools hold shooting response drills after deadly school attack (opens Channel News Asia in a new tab)
Channel News Asia — is Channel News Asia biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Thai schools hold shooting response drills after deadly school attack (opens Reuters in a new tab)
- Thai schools hold shooting response drills after deadly school attack (opens WTVB in a new tab)
- Preparing for the Unthinkable: Thai Schools Conduct Active Shooter Drills (opens Devdiscourse in a new tab)
Devdiscourse — is Devdiscourse biased? Our profile of this outlet
Right
6- Fear of New School Shootings in Thailand: Students Practice How to Act (opens De Telegraaf in a new tab)
De Telegraaf — is De Telegraaf biased? Our profile of this outlet
- ‘Run, hide, fight’: Thai schools launch active shooter drills after deadly attack (opens Malay Mail in a new tab)
Malay Mail — is Malay Mail biased? Our profile of this outlet
- How Is Thailand Responding to Rising School Shooting Threats? (opens Modern Diplomacy in a new tab)
Modern Diplomacy — is Modern Diplomacy biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Thai schools hold shooting response drills (opens Bangkok Post in a new tab)
Bangkok Post — is Bangkok Post biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Thai schools hold shooting response drills after deadly school attack (opens The Straits Times in a new tab)
The Straits Times — is The Straits Times biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Thai schools hold shooting response drills after deadly school attack (opens Arab News in a new tab)
Not rated
3- Thai Schools Conduct Drills to Prepare for Mass Shootings. (opens Thanh Niên in a new tab)
Thanh Niên — is Thanh Niên biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Thai Schools Conduct Mass Drills Against Shootings and Check Students' Backpacks. (opens TUOI TRE ONLINE in a new tab)
TUOI TRE ONLINE — is TUOI TRE ONLINE biased? Our profile of this outlet
- ‘Run, hide, fight’: Thai schools launch active shooter drills after deadly attack (opens AlKhaleej Today in a new tab)
AlKhaleej Today — is AlKhaleej Today biased? Our profile of this outlet
How did this read?
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